![]() Hall & Oates This is probably the most widely dismissed album in the Hall & Oates catalog, and considering that all Hall & Oates albums are already widely dismissed to begin with, that's saying something. For some reason, I'd been hankering to hear the album again, having long ago sold back my LP (originally obtained from the RCA Record Club, incidentally). Nowadays the album is way out of print (though available on CD as an import … not quite worth going to all that trouble), so I picked up a used copy on cassette to see if the album was as good as I remembered it being in 1985. It's not, so I jumped in the time machine to have a conversation with 1985 me about it.
Current Me: Hey there, I notice you're listening to Hall & Oates Live at the Apollo.Er, I'm not sure I'm enlightened in the least as to why I loved this album so much. It's a solid live set with a good track listing, with the inclusion of the former Motown legends on vocals helping immeasurably. Side A features the "Apollo Medley" ("Get Ready/Ain't Too Proud to Beg/The Way You Do the Things You Do/My Girl") plus "When Something is Wrong With My Baby" and "Everytime You Go Away" (then a current chart hit for Paul Young). Side B is all Hall & Oates material minus Ruffin and Kendrick ("I Can't Go For That," "One on One," "Possession Obsession," "Adult Education"), and listening to it now I am not certain that I ever listened to it before. Side A is pretty top-heavy with relative quality compared to Side B, which is marginally interesting at best. Far more strained vocals on Side B, though Ruffin and Kendrick each have their weak moments on Side A … but at least they have the excuse of being old-timers. Tons of off-harmonies throughout, certainly not something I'd have noticed in 1985. Overall, it's a decent record, and as Hall & Oates' sole live record, it is of interest to fans of the duo (though judging by Internet fan sites, there's not all that much interest). Chalk this one up to inexplicable nostalgia. I will say, though, that if they expanded it to like 18 tracks and put it in a brilliant box, I would be first in line to buy it, but then that goes for pretty much any album ever made.
Review by Mason Bray |
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